Observations on economics, the academy, the wider world, and things that run on rails.

3.11.13

THE BRITISH COLLEGE BUBBLE?

World Socialist Web Site coverage of a one day strike by British university lecturers and supportive staff has the expected invocations of marketisation and austerity. Reality, however, is more subtle.

Anya Louis, a lecturer at Hallam University in Sheffield, England had been on the picket line earlier in the day and said, “I’m happy about how few went through the picket lines. It’s been a good start. Enough is enough.

“This is not just about the pay—that’s the tagline. It’s about working conditions, performance related pay, zero contract hours. Teaching is one of the top three professions with the most stress related illness—teaching, social work and nursing.

“There is so much interference in what is being taught from people who don’t know anything about learning. If you talk to people in the National Health Service it’s exactly the same.

“There is a huge tension where everyone is an individual and is unique and learns best in different ways. The drive to standardisation creates the exact opposite.”